


nice melons

by shootsharpest



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Grocery Store, Lance is full of pickup lines and is unabashed about using them, M/M, Meet-Cute, Possible sequel sometime, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 17:32:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19278082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shootsharpest/pseuds/shootsharpest
Summary: Turning to ‘Idiot,’ he opened his mouth, holding the produce he’d just scanned to his chest, out of reach from the guy. And, for the first time, ‘Idiot’ fixed his gaze on Keith. And, fuck, he was actually kind of cute. Keith’s mouth snapped shut before he could say something stupid. Instead, ‘Idiot’ apparently decided to do it for him, with a (stupidly adorable) shit-eating grin, no less.“Hey, nice melons.”--Keith and Lance are students working in the same grocery store.





	nice melons

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I have some klance fics in the works but I really needed to get this out while I was inspired, plus I'm in Japan so any time I get to write I've been using for what comes to me.

Keith really wished they’d just give him a stool already. He’d only clocked in a few hours ago, but standing behind the register for so long was making his knees lock up. Not to mention he had a Spanish report due the next morning and his slow shift was prime time to sneak glances at the textbook hidden in the counter. It was especially hard to do while standing, though; with nothing to do to distract himself, time trickled by like water from a broken fountain.

Only a handful of people were even in the shop, which meant the employees stocking the shelves were making themselves look busy. Keith watched with a slight pang of envy as a short girl with glasses strolled by with a dolly full of toilet paper, taking her sweet time as she chatted with that taller guy with curly hair. Keith couldn’t remember their names. Hers was Penny, maybe? He was pretty sure it was a weird nickname she went by, and Keith had his own nickname for the tall guy--‘Idiot.’

Okay, so maybe he wouldn’t be winning the “Best Co-worker Award” anytime soon. But the guy really was a bit of an idiot. Keith hadn’t ever had an actual  _ conversation _ with him, but he didn’t need to know that. ‘Idiot’ once tried to build a display out of soda-can boxes, not realizing that they tended to use empty boxes secured with tape to make their more challenging displays, and ‘Idiot’ ended up having to leave early with a friend to make sure the falling cans hadn’t broken anything in his body.

Even now, Keith watched as ‘Idiot’ was trying to juggle the smaller packs of toilet paper, sending one into some small boxed foods and knocking them over. Keith snorted to himself as the guy scrambled to fix his mistake before anyone noticed. 

Idiot.

“Excuse me?” Keith’s attention snapped back from watching the shorter girl snapping at ‘Idiot’ to the elderly lady in front of his counter. 

“Sorry,” he stammered, going a bit pink. “Let me--how are you today?” Keith interrupted himself with one of his usual scripts, luckily managing to recover into idle chit-chat. 

The old woman chuckled and continued to stack groceries onto the conveyor belt for Keith to scan, asking a few polite questions in return. She was having a bit of trouble placing the bags back into her cart, though, so Keith kept pausing to move a handful of plastic bags into the cart as she apologized for the trouble.

“Oh, let me help you there, ma’am!”

“Are you sure it’s not too much trouble?”

“No, it’s slow today, so I’m not doing that much.” 

And with that, ‘Idiot’ himself was sidling his way behind Keith to take over bagging and repacking the cart. Keith felt a pang of annoyance. He’d had it under control, and as he rang up two cantaloupes, he made it up in his mind to say so. Turning to ‘Idiot,’ he opened his mouth, holding the produce he’d just scanned to his chest, out of reach from the guy. And, for the first time, ‘Idiot’ fixed his gaze on Keith. And,  _ fuck,  _ he was actually kind of cute. Keith’s mouth snapped shut before he could say something stupid. Instead, ‘Idiot’ apparently decided to do it  _ for _ him, with a (stupidly adorable) shit-eating grin, no less.

“Hey, nice melons.”

Redness bloomed across Keith’s cheeks, despite himself. He cursed himself for the reaction--he didn’t even  _ have _ ‘melons,’ and there was a sweet little old lady right  _ there, _ how in the world was this idiot so blasé about saying something like that?

“I’m sorry?” was all Keith could manage, eyebrows furrowed and face warm.

“I  _ said-- _ ” ‘Idiot’ began to repeat himself, but Keith cut him off, all but throwing the cantaloupes into his arms. 

“I  _ heard _ you,” Keith hissed, turning back to the conveyor belt to hide his face, knowing damn well he was too late, that ‘Idiot’ already got some kind of rise out of him. He made minimal eye contact with the old lady as he finished his job, handing her back her change and mumbling something about taking his break early as he grabbed his book from beneath the counter and stormed off.

“Oh, me too, actually,” ‘Idiot’ grinned, pulling his apron off over his head and waving at the glasses girl, who promptly flipped him off. “Pidge is jealous. Her break isn’t ‘til five,” he explained, though Keith certainly didn’t ask.

“Mm.”

“Whatcha reading?”

Keith was still having trouble making eye contact with the guy, so he just held it up and let him read it.

“Wait, you’re in Spanish? No way, I  _ speak _ Spanish!” He snatched the book from Keith’s hand and flipped it open to the dog-eared page. “Let’s see… ‘Present Progressive.’ Oh, that’s easy.”

“Yeah, well, not for all of us,” Keith huffed, taking the book back. “And we have this essay due tomorrow using it, but I haven’t even started, and I don’t get off ‘til seven--”

“Want me to help?”

Keith froze. “What?”

“Let me help,” the guy repeated. “I mean, I’m not gonna write it  _ for _ you, but I can help you with the verbs.”

Which is how Keith found himself sitting in the breakroom scribbling sentences in a spiral notebook under his co-worker’s watchful eye. ‘Idiot’ was chatty, but his Spanish  _ was _ perfect, and Keith certainly needed the help.

“No, no,  _ creer  _ becomes  _ creyendo _ , we went over this, Keith!” 

“That doesn’t make any  _ sense!” _

“ _ English _ doesn’t make any sense! You think it was easy to learn how to spell all those dumb words?”

Keith snorted again, but this time was definitely with the guy, rather than at him. “Fair.” After another quiet moment of writing, he paused. “... How do you know my name?”

“We… Are you kidding?”

Keith shook his head. 

“Oh my god, dude, we were in the same section of Comp I in freshman year?” 

A beat. Then the gears started to turn. “Oh, right. You’re Taylor.”

“What? No, my name’s  _ Lance,” _ the guy sputtered, throwing his arms out. “McClain?”

Now that he heard it, it definitely sounded familiar. Keith wasn’t sure where he even got ‘Taylor’ from. But, despite the Spanish help, Keith hadn’t quite forgotten about the dumbass line from earlier. 

“... Pretty sure it was Taylor,” Keith leaned back in his chair, rubbing his chin as if he were thinking hard about it.

“Wh--no! Oh my god, you wear the wrong name tag  _ once _ and everyone starts calling you  _ Taylor--” _

Keith’s laughs interrupted Lance’s rambling, and soon Lance was giggling along with him. “Alright, well. Thanks for the help, Taylor,” Keith said, standing and closing his textbook.

“Anytime, Melons,” Lance replied, not missing a beat, turning to walk out in front of Keith.

“No,” Keith warned. “No, that’s--that’s not about to be a thing. I’m  _ serious, _ Lance.”

Lance held the door open behind him, and turned to look back at Keith, shooting him a wink, of all things. “Well, it worked, didn’t it? You called me Lance just now.” 

“... I hate you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Inspiration for this comes from the real life story of how my dad met my mom and the first thing he ever said to her being "nice melons" while they worked in a grocery store lmao
> 
> This may have a sequel depending on if people want to see more from this AU! Please do let me know uwu
> 
> Find me on twitter @shootsharpest to yell about klance with me


End file.
